Week 4 was a mess

 So after my brain dump on Thursday things went a whole lot smoother. Let's recap. 

Chemistry: 

Monday and Tuesday we did our first big lab. I set up the board with the way they were to set up their notebooks - that was their bellwork, setting up their notebooks. Many didn't do that. That means when we started the lab they weren't ready to go. There were 5 things they had to do and collect data on and it took most of the class. As I wrote about on Thursday, some groups didn't finish it because they were goofing off. Others did pretty crappy jobs at it. The bottom line is that I was majorly disappointed in these students as a whole. But all is not lost. I just need to take a step back and keep going step by step until they can do these things on their own. Not a problem.

After I lost it on my first class on Wednesday, I had that class write a page on what they found in the lab. But as they were writing I realized that I could give a short lecture as to what I wanted them to get out of the lab. So as they were writing, I made notes in the notebook and then gave a lecture. It actually worked out really, really well. So well in fact that I used it for all the rest of the classes on Wednesday and Thursday. After that I had them do Big Idea #1. 

So while it was not my finest week, it ended up okay. I really like the notes that I came up with. First we define mass and matter and how you can only change mass if you add or remove matter. Then we went through each part of the lab and figured out what we should have seen happen with the mass. Then I went back through the parts of the lab and defined them as chemical or physical changes. I created a small table what summarized the differences between chemical and physical changes, then we examined what might be evidence of a chemical reaction. This all led into the Law of Conservation of Matter. I think it was a good, effective lecture and notes and now I know that they got the correct information. After that we did Big Idea #1 on the white boards. I have them the question and the template that they had to include in their notebooks. Then we whiteboarded it and worked through it using all that we had just learned. It was interesting to see their interpretations, but I'm not sure it was really effective in getting good answers. I'm thinking on Monday/Tuesday  I will point out some things that are important that should be in their Big Ideas. 

This is all a learning process for them and actually for me too. I haven't taught this the same way in the last 3 years. I did start it in 2019, but that was my first year and I had no idea what I was doing really. Then in 2020 the world shut down. We started 2021 online and then in and out, so it was difficult/impossible to really teach it well that way. So here we are in 2022, at some semblance of normal, and I have a little more experience under my belt so I'm more comfortable with the material. So we are all in  a learning curve and things will take time to figure out. 

AP Chemistry: 

We worked some problems on mass spectroscopy. They were supposed to review the power points for homework and then we would come in and work through some problems. Many of them did not review the power points but I stuck to my guns and we worked through problems anyway. There are two students in my class that are driving me absolutely crazy. Already. They talk almost nonstop. They are frequently off topic and talking nonsense. The girl talks so fast that I have a hard time understanding what she is saying. I got to the point in class on Thursday where I just had to ignore them. We were working through a complex problem and having difficulty solving it and they were prattling on about all kinds of nonsense. I just ignored them and worked on the problem. It is frustrating and going to be an interesting year with them. I fully expect some breakdowns and crying before the year is over. 

Okay, that's about it for this week. I do have some work to do to prep for next week so I'll be working on that this weekend.